DON'T LOOK FOR POT CAFES ANY TIME SOON IN HALIFAX

Haligonians won't be relaxing with a joint and a coffee anytime soon -- not
outside their apartments, anyway -- despite the early success of the
Cannabis Cafe in downtown Saint John, N.B.

The pot-friendly retreat opened April 1 and has been operating hassle-free
due to recent court decisions that make the risk of criminal charges for
simple possession of marijuana nearly non-existent.

Business at the modest cafe, housed adjacent to Hemp New Brunswick's retail
shop, has been relatively brisk, with dozens stopping by each day to light
up a joint, says co-owner Jim Wood.

"We'd like to see one in every large and small community in Canada, just
like Tim Hortons," he told The Daily News last week.

Nonetheless, two metro smoke shops say they have no intention of following
suit.

Mary Jane's Smokeshop on Grafton Street won't start serving drinks or food.
And while Colleen Banks, co-owner of Sweetleaf Smoke Shop on Isleville
Street, considered opening a cafe -- featuring hemp tea and other
beverages, not dope smoking -- she's decided to stick to selling pipes,
bongs and other paraphernalia.

"I don't have the space, for starters," she says. "And as soon as you open
a place like that, you get judged as selling drugs. It's not fair, but
that's what happens."

Wood and his wife, Lynn, opened the Cannabis Cafe on busy King Street, in a
building owned by a Halifax woman. They don't sell marijuana, but they
provide a public place -- the cafe actually looks like a cozy den, with a
couple of sofas, lots of plants and a chess board -- to smoke it. Patrons
must be 19 and must purchase a non-alcoholic beverage to enter.

It's the latest volley in the couple's bid to have marijuana
decriminalized. Wood, 34, was arrested in August 1998 when police found 57
pot plants growing on his rural property, marijuana he says he needs to
fight the chronic pain of crushed vertebrae from an automobile crash.

He served a year of house arrest -- basically living in the hemp store
(they' ve since moved their hydroponics business to a separate location) 24
hours a day. Many days, the couple's three-year-old daughter and toddler
son play around their feet.

But, the idea of a pot cafe sounded "outrageous" at first, admits Wood --
until a couple of court cases gave him confident that he could open the
only one, as far as he knows, east of Vancouver.

On March 31, Judge Flora Buchan stayed proceedings against Paula Clarke of
Minesville, making Nova Scotia the third province -- behind Ontario and
Prince Edward Island -- where marijuana users are unlikely to be convicted
for possession of less than 30 grams. While not binding, it's expected to
influence law enforcement officials across the country.